How will Nitish Kumar retain his credibility?

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has summoned his MLAs on Tuesday for a meeting, which is expected to witness his high-minded rhetoric against corruption and possible dismissal of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad’s son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav.

While this will further strain the already stressed relations between the ruling JD(U) and RJD, the ‘Grand Alliance’ will continue, at least for some time. In his speech to JD(U) legislators, the Bihar CM is also expected to attack the BJP’s “vendetta politics” and efforts to destabilise the State government.

After his apparent drift towards the BJP by backing the NDA’s Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, Nitish may end up supporting the Opposition’s candidate for the Vice-President’s post.

Unpredictable as Nitish’s political journey has been, the turn of events over the past week shows two clear strains.

One is that the image-conscious Bihar CM is desperate to distance from Lalu and his family’s corruption. For this purpose, it is absolutely critical that Tejaswi, mired in various land scams and money-laundering cases, is removed from the Cabinet.

The second important takeaway is that while Nitish’s aim would be to maintain his moral high ground and distance from Lalu, the latter is vulnerable and yet canny enough clutch to the last straw to retain his hold on to State power.

Lalu will not break the Alliance and destabilise the government in Bihar even at the cost of losing face and his son losing his Cabinet berth.

So, said JD(U) sources, even when Lalu has announced that his son would remain in the Bihar Cabinet and the RJD backed him in a meeting held on Monday, he will still take Nitish’s blows on the chin and swallow the insult if the Bihar CM decides to sack his deputy.

With a weakened Lalu, the JD(U) chief currently has the upper hand and a variety of options to explore. While breaking the Alliance and gravitating towards the BJP is one option, the other, more attractive, option is to maintain his political credibility by remaining in the Opposition Alliance even as while distancing himself from the alleged corruption of Lalu.

His predecessor Sharad Yadav gave some indication of such a course of action being adopted when he said the JD(U) would participate in a meeting on Tuesday of the Opposition parties to discuss their candidate for the Vice-President post. Sharad, unlike Nitish who has maintained a stoic silence, also defended Lalu by asserting that the various investigations against him and his family are “politically motivated”.

“All these things are being done to undermine the Grand Alliance at a national level,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP is clearly chuffed at the growing tension in the Alliance and loss of Lalu’s credibility.

“Where is the CM’s morality? If he has any principles, he should take action against Lalu’s sons,” Leader of Opposition in Bihar Sushil Modi told BusinessLine over phone from Patna.